Death of a Burrowing Mole (1982)
1982 Michael Joseph blurb:
Two undergraduates decide to spend the long vacation searching for treasure which local legend indicates was buried in a castle well during the Civil War.
When the youths get to the site they are dismayed to find that other parties have also obtained permission to work there. Some archaeologists are hoping to excavate a Bronze Age barrow and two architects, with their helpers, intend to attempt a partial reconstruction of the walls and flanking-towers of the castle.
One of the archaeologists is also an amateur astronomer. One night, while studying the stars, he falls from the top of the keep … to his death.
The fall is regarded with suspicion when the police discover that all fingerprints have been cleared off the dead man’s telescope. Then two brutal murders are committed on the site and it falls to Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley and the local police to solve the mystery of the deaths.
The treasure? Well, the castle is easily identifiable, so no metal detectors please!
My review:
Dull and disappointing, especially after the excellent Here Lies Gloria Mundy. The investigations are dull and routine, with every character having two sets of false alibis; the final solution breaks both the Knox and Van Dine rules (contrast with the blurb of Lovers, Make Moan); and, to quote Larkin, "Gladys Mitchell has finally shot her bolt."